Gail McGovern talks to Adebayo Oguntayo at an aid station during her visit to the tornado hit areas in Joplin, MO on May 28, 2011.

From the tornadoes in Joplin, Miss., to the earthquake and tsunami in Japan, this past year has been marked by devastating and deadly disasters that have killed thousands of people, destroyed whole communities and changed lives forever. It was one of the worst years for disasters, but it brought out the best in millions of people who gave generously to support their neighbors down the street, across the country and around the world.

When people talk about changing the world, many will say it’s impossible, but I must disagree. I have been privileged to see first hand how the work of an organization like the American Red Cross can change the world for the better.

When the American Red Cross can help build temporary homes and hospitals in Japan, we have changed the world for the survivors who lost everything.

When one billion children in 60 countries have been vaccinated against measles, their world has been changed. When a cancer patient or accident victim receives a life-saving blood transfusion, their world has been changed.

When a family’s house burns down in the middle of the night, and Red Cross volunteers arrive with a warm cup of coffee, a blanket for their shoulders, a place for them to stay and a plan to help them get back on their feet, their world has been changed.

There are stories after stories of the many ways the American Red Cross changes lives every day.

In 2012, I aspire to change the world by doing everything in my power to engage more Americans in our mission and to help more people in need.

In the coming year, the Red Cross will be on the ground in Haiti continuing to build homes, support cholera prevention, create job opportunities for Haitians and increase access to clean water.

As the largest supplier of blood products in the U.S., we’ll be supporting the evolution of cellular therapy for treating diseases, like advanced prostate cancer, as well as leading research on blood transfusions in the area of emerging diseases.

Right: Emergency Response Vehicles helping with flood recovery in Minot encountered a rainbow after a thunderstorm passed through.

In 2012, we will continue to stand ready 24/7 and will strive to provide flawless disaster relief whenever and wherever a disaster strikes. Every year we respond to about 70,000 disasters, from large-scale events like Hurricane Irene, to a single-family house fire. Every nine minutes we’re on the job somewhere around the country offering disaster victims food and shelter, a shoulder to lean as they face an uncertain future, and resources to help them recover.

As more and more of our service members return home from deployments, the Red Cross will be there to help them reconnect with their families and communities; and we will continue to help support those in military hospitals along with their families, especially through our new partnership with the Wounded Warrior Project.

We’ll also be looking at ways to make our first aid and CPR classes more accessible to the public this year. Our goal is to train 5 million people in hands-only CPR so they, too, can save a life.

Red Cross chapters held Save a Life Saturday classes at more than 100 locations across the country to honor Rep. Gabrielle Giffords and all those involved in the Tucson, AZ tragedy.

In 2012, I will strive to continue to ensure that our donors approve of how we’re using their precious gifts. We are proud that an average of 91 cents of every dollar the Red Cross spends goes to our humanitarian services and programs. In September, we were gratified to learn that Charity Navigator, a watchdog group for charities, awarded us four out of four stars for fiscal health, accountability and transparency.

Our work does change the world by offering the priceless gift of help, hope and compassion to people in urgent need. But we cannot do it without your help. I invite you to join us in 2012. There are so many simple ways you can make a difference. Donate blood. Make a financial contribution. Sign-up to volunteer.

I would be honored to work alongside you to change the world, and I know it can be done because I see it happen every day at the Red Cross.

A set of visual notes from yesterday’s Forum on Nonprofit Leadership. 

Training America’s next leaders is nothing new to the American Red Cross. Ask any one of the hundred-thousand Red Cross volunteers age 24 or younger what life-enhancing skills they are learning, and they’ll talk about Red Cross activities that turn them into leaders.

It is only fitting, then, that when the White House convened thought-leaders in the nonprofit, corporate and government sectors to talk about ways to develop strong nonprofit leaders, the forum take place at the American Red Cross.

The White House Forum on Nonprofit Leadership highlighted the importance of the nonprofit sector as an economic force that needs effective leadership, and the need for a cohesive nonprofit leadership program. During the day, participating nonprofit leaders developed recommendations for recruiting and training nonprofit leaders, and identified potential ways to fund continuing leadership development programs.

“This is a critical set of conversations,” Melody Barnes, Director of the Domestic Policy Council at The White House, told forum participants. Barnes noted that the nonprofit sector employs 3.5 million people, 10 percent of the overall workforce. The nonprofit sector is growing faster than the business sector, and, in 2010, nonprofits contributed $779 billion to the nation’s gross domestic product.

“Effective leadership becomes more and more important each day as the nonprofit work load goes up and resources go down,” Barnes said.

Keynote speaker Kenneth I. Chenault, Chairman and CEO, American Express Company, said leadership was a complicated subject, and quoted Napoleon for the definition he prefers: “The role of a leader is to define reality and to give hope.”

“Leadership,” Chenault said, “should not be equated with title.” Leadership is earned through competence, caring and judgment—characteristics that can be exhibited at any level. He also told the audience that “leadership can be learned.” Effective leaders study leadership, they practice leadership and they welcome feedback about their leadership behaviors.

When it comes to identifying future leaders, Chenault looks for several attributes, including a concern for people. He explained that a good leader must have concern for people, because they have to make decisions that directly impact people’s lives. “Great leaders get that emotional connection,” he said.

Other attributes on Chenault’s list are a high EQ, or execution quotient—someone who does what it takes to get the job done; and, because change is occurring at a rapid pace, adaptability.

The forum was closed by Valarie B. Jarrett, Senior Advisor to the President, who encouraged participants to “write a new chapter in America’s story” as they develop and execute a strategy for developing nonprofit leaders.

Recalling President Obama’s work as a Community Organizer, Jarrett carried the message that President Obama understands the challenge and supports forum objectives.

Jarrett offered her own definition of leadership: “If you can’t motivate people to work together toward a common goal, you’re simply an expert,” she said, “Not a leader.”

The American Red Cross offers a number of opportunities for young volunteers to serve in leadership positions. Contact Your Local Red Cross for opportunities in your community

Today the Red Cross is proudly hosting the White House forum on nonprofit leadership at our headquarters building in Washington, D.C.  I had the honor of welcoming about two hundred guests to the event this morning in our Hall of service, where 100 years ago women volunteers rolled bandages for wounded soldiers during World War I.

Participants at the day-long dialogue will discuss the important role of nonprofit organizations and how to develop leadership within the sector to drive the expansion of community-based solutions to our nation’s most pressing social problems and create jobs.  The nation’s 1.6 million nonprofit organizations employ 13.5 million workers, nearly 10% of the American workforce.

Co-conveners include The Annie E. Casey Foundation, The Aspen Institute Program on Philanthropy and Social Innovation, Center for Creative Leadership, Commongood Careers, Independent Sector, Public Allies and American Express.

I believe my road to the Red Cross illustrates an important lesson for future leaders in the nonprofit sector.  What drew me to the American Red Cross after 28 years in the private sector was a desire to help a national treasure deal with a series of challenges, the most glaring of which was a $209 million deficit and a mountain of debt.

I walked in to the job with a preconceived notion that the Red Cross could simply benefit from some private sector-like leadership.  But in truth, I was only half right.

We did deploy many of the techniques and initiatives that the for-profit sector would recognize and employ.  We eliminated our deficit within two years and have actually delivered a surplus for the last two years in a row.  We paid down some of our debt as well as consolidated back-office operations and centralized procurement.  Today, we’re ten percent smaller than we were 6 months ago, and last fiscal year, 92 cents of every dollar went to the people we served.

These changes were necessary, but certainly not easy.  We lost many of our valuable employees in process.  However, none of these actions impacted our ability to deliver our mission.  And let me tell you, we were tested by anything Mother Nature could throw at us—floods, hurricanes, earthquakes, tornados and wild fires.

But here’s what I found so humbling: Red Crossers, and I dare say most people who work or volunteer in the independent sector, will do virtually anything to forward our mission.

They are here because of their innate nature to want to give back, to serve others and to be a part of something greater than themselves.  When you explain to a Red Crosser that what you’re doing will forward the mission and make us even better stewards of our donors’ dollars, they actually become change agents.  I’ve never experienced anything like this in the for-profit world.

As a leader, I’ve learned that leading from your heart as well as your head is more gratifying and fulfilling.  It’s the nature of every employee and volunteer in our sector to be mission-driven.  As we seek to invest in building capable leaders in the nonprofit industry, we need to learn to harness our employees’ desire to make a difference and use it to achieve our mission.

At the risk of sounding corny, tapping into the need that so many of us have to make a difference, will not only help our sector flourish, it will make the world a better place.  Investing in talent, leadership, diversity, and our human capital will help nonprofits better serve our neighbors in the long-run.

The symposium is an excellent student-run event that brings in an eclectic group of speakers, like Jerry Springer, Michael K. Williams from “The Wire,” and Obama advisor David Axelrod. The speakers are asked to “address the various strides America must take to strengthen its position in the global landscape and catapult the world towards the future.”

When I read the speech topic, I thought, “What an unbelievably daunting topic.” So I decided to share with the students the lessons I’ve learned since working for the Red Cross in hopes that it would encourage them as they contemplate their own futures.

The first lesson I described is that working for the Red Cross has restored my faith in humanity. If you turn on the television today, you’ll hear a lot of bickering and pessimism. But I’m here to tell you that there are wonderful, giving, selfless people in our country, supporting the American Red Cross and other worthy causes. For example, while visiting a blood bank, I met a man in the process of giving his 49th gallon of blood. Yes, I said gallon – that’s a true act of life-saving generosity. In Joplin, I met a woman who had lost everything but was still volunteering in our shelter. After the earthquake struck Haiti, a seven-year old sent me a crumpled up dollar bill that he got from the tooth fairy and asked me to send it to the people of Haiti.

There are so many ordinary people walking the streets who have performed extraordinary acts. They are my heroes, and I’m grateful to them for showing me that the future is actually bright.

The second lesson I’ve learned is that you’re never too old to reinvent yourself. I call myself a 59-year-old work in progress. I told the students that if you find yourself in a situation in which you don’t like what you’re doing, you can try something else. You can course correct at any time. I worked for almost three decades in the corporate world and then about six years in academia before I moved to the Red Cross. You can always make changes, and when you achieve your dreams, you can always have new ones.

Lastly, I told these bright, delightful students that we are so privileged to live in this country. When I first visited Haiti after the disaster, there were still corpses on the ground. There were people walking around with horrific wounds. Even before the earthquake, an estimated 2.5 Haitians in 10,000 had never seen a doctor. A projected three quarters of the people in Haiti didn’t have electricity. One in three Haitians lacked access to safe municipal water.   This was all before the earthquake. I feel fortunate to live in a country with infrastructure and services that I often take for granted. That’s why when one student asked me how to blend passions for both the corporate and non-profit worlds I told him to always be involved in giving. There’s nothing as delicious as giving back. Whether it’s your time, your talents, your money or even donating blood.

What a treat it was to spend time with some of the future leaders of our country. I left the symposium feeling encouraged about our future.

Every time I make a trip to Haiti, it looks a little bit better. On this visit, I’ve sensed a real feeling of optimism. There’s a returning sense of normalcy, less rubble, and signs of rebuilding. I also saw fewer people in the camps, and the numbers bear it out. People are moving from under tarps, into homes and getting on with their lives.

What the American Red Cross is doing in Haiti is very much in the spirit of building back better.

On Friday I attended a meeting of the Interim Haiti Recovery Commission. President Martelly was at that meeting, and shared with us the details of his 100-day plan. Among other things, it focuses on systematic ways to move people out of six camps and into neighborhoods. The plan seems reasonable and feasible, and I was certainly impressed with the presentation.

The American Red Cross and our partners in the Red Cross network have decided to allocate funds to relocate about 900 families from one of the makeshift camps, as part of the 100-day plan. We’ll do this through a combination of new home construction, repair of damaged homes and economic support to renters.

What the American Red Cross is doing in Haiti is very much in the spirit of building back better. The global Red Cross network has also committed to helping 30,000 families transition out of camps and into safer homes. That work is well underway, and more than 12,000 families have been helped. Semi-permanent houses are going up and there are smiles on the faces of recipients. It’s a beautiful thing to see.

Building permanent communities will be harder, and will take longer.

The next step in our housing strategy is more ambitious. We’re planning on repairing and potentially building permanent homes. In fact, one of our stops on this trip was at a housing exposition in Port-au-Prince. President Martelly and Bill Clinton – who’s co-chair of the recovery commission – attended the expo as well. About 60 different construction companies were there showing their designs. We’re putting together a request for proposals to evaluate which options are best for us.

Building permanent communities will be harder, and will take longer. It will involve not just the homes themselves, but a whole series of interconnected services, from water and sanitation to roads. We’re talking about a massive urban renewal program that’s going to take years to complete. Our hope to create sustainable change in Haiti.

When I look at the Haitians, I see people who are hopeful, optimistic and resilient. They’re industrious and entrepreneurial. But Haiti is a challenging place too. It’s going to be complex to get all this done in an equitable way. Despite the challenges, I truly do have a feeling of optimism.

4 years and over 4,000 miles [What Red Cross volunteers like Joe Hansen do]

Thank you from Joplin [Red Crosser Duane Hallock blog post]

Service uniforms of Red Cross workers [Alessandra Kelley]

The beginning of the American Red Cross [Red Cross YouTube channel]

First-Person Singular [Washington Post profile of Gail McGovern]

Where to live to avoid a natural disaster [NYTimes]

Stephen searches for shared bathroom key [Colbert Report near-telethon for Red Cross]

Tornado tracks from space [Discover Magazine]

Hurricane preparedness through freeze tag [Knight Foundation blog]

Investor’s Business Daily highlights the vision and leadership of Henry Dunant, the Swiss businessman that founded the global Red Cross and Red Crescent network and pushed for the first Geneva Convention more than 150 years ago. The first Nobel Prize was awarded to Dunant in 1901 in recognition of his leadership for “the supreme humanitarian achievement of the 19th century.”

So what leadership qualities did Dunant possess?

Our own Isabelle Daoust had this to say in the article:

“He was action-oriented and a problem solver,” said Isabelle Daoust, the American Red Cross manager for international humanitarian law. “He didn’t waste a minute when he saw the carnage [at the Battle of Solferino].”

Later in the article, she discusses his strong belief in his idea.

“There had been debates over what principles should be followed,” Daoust said, “and some of his fellow leaders thought Dunant was unrealistic to believe the Red Cross could be completely neutral and impartial.”

A few nations wanted the volunteers integrated into their armies. Some activists felt the new outfit should always speak out against the aggressor in any conflict.

Dunant said no. He “was steadfast and refused to compromise because he understood the power of this innovative idea,” Daoust said.

Because of his unique vision and commitment, the Red Cross now provides wartime and natural disaster relief to 250 million people annually. Read the full article at Investor’s Business Daily.

What can modern leaders learn from his example?

A year ago, Americans responded with incredible generosity to the devastating earthquake in Haiti.  Despite a struggling economy, some 40 percent of American households contributed to help Haiti. At the American Red Cross, we received donations ranging from million dollar gifts from corporations, to a crumpled dollar bill a child had received from the tooth fairy.

A year later, seeing photos and television images of how bad things still are in Haiti, Americans may wonder if their contributions have done any good, or if there is any hope for Haiti. As someone who has made multiple trips to Haiti, I can assure them the answer is yes.

Like many, I wish the pace of progress in Haiti was faster. I want to see every Haitian living in permanent homes, having robust livelihoods, and thriving in vibrant communities. Instead, more than a million people are still living under tarps and tents, while the Haitian government – which also was affected by the earthquake – works to sort through land ownership issues.

But the fact is the money Americans gave after the earthquake literally kept hundreds of thousands of Haitians alive. It has helped them survive until more permanent homes and infrastructure can be built. And it has been critically important in responding to the cholera outbreak, a hurricane and other challenges Haiti has faced since the earthquake.

The American Red Cross received about $479 million in donations for Haiti, more than $32 million of which was raised from text messaging at $10 a text. At the one-year mark, we have spent or have signed contracts to spend more than half of that amount – $245 million.

Most of that money has provided emergency relief:

• Food for more than a million people at the height of the earthquake response
• Clean, drinkable water for hundreds of thousands every day
• Tents and tarps to protect more than 860,000 people from the blazing sun and drenching rains
• Business loans and grants to help 220,000 earn a living
• A vaccination campaign inoculating nearly 1 million men, women and children against deadly diseases.

Thanks to our donors, the American Red Cross also has been able to keep the doors open for two important hospitals: the largest public hospital in Port-au-Prince and the only critical care and trauma center in Haiti. We also are funding the rebuilding of a prosthetics clinic.

The Red Cross and its partners are beginning to build brightly colored transitional homes, a vivid sign of progress and hope for the future. In many instances, these shelters are being built by people from the community as part of our cash-for-work program, which teaches skills and puts money in the hands of Haitians. Overall, we will be building shelters for more than 32,000 people and are budgeting $100 million to $150 million to construct permanent homes.

At this point, progress is still hard to see, and every time I’ve gone to Haiti, I’ve experienced nearly every emotion: deep sadness and despair but also pride, joy and hope.

But I have to keep reminding myself that Haiti was a very poor country before this devastating earthquake. In many cases, aid groups are not rebuilding Haiti – they are building some of the infrastructure for the first time.

Clearly the needs in Haiti, estimated at more than $12 billion, are more than any one aid group can meet. Yet amidst all of the hardship remains hope.

Just one month after the earthquake, I saw small businesses that women and men set up in their makeshift tents – a small hair salon, a manicurist, a tiny restaurant with only one table-for-two.

I am confident that with the kind of generosity displayed by the American people, the fortitude and determination of the Haitian people and the heroic efforts of our Red Cross workers, other aid organizations and governments like ours who are helping, there is hope for the people of Haiti.

Gail J. McGovern is president and CEO of the American Red Cross.